Reading to my children is one of my great joys as a parent.
Helping my children know, and love, and trust God is one of my great hopes as a Christian.
Enter that sometimes vexing genre, the “Children’s Bible.”
On many levels a children’s Bible is a great idea.
Reading the Bible, uncut, to my five and seven year old children is a non-starter. Or maybe a non-finisher is the better way to put it. There are vast swaths of the law that lack, shall we say, narrative drive.
But a children’s Bible, a selective, child-friendly book that tells the stories that hold the Bible together, sounds great.
They’ll see the unfolding drama of salvation at their own level. Then when they are ready to read the actual Bible, they will already know the outline.
But why, then, are children’s Bibles so often kind of awful?
Well no need to go into a rant on the topic, but I’ll just say that I’ve seen some that turn the gritty reality of the drama of salvation into cloying sweetness. Or God’s promise of grace in Christ can subtly turn into law for behavior management.
Let’s just say many if them fail my “wince test.”
Three Children’s Bibles
Let me tell you about three that have had some success in our house. I’ll take them in order of discovery.
You might fear that adding rhyming to every page of a children’s Bible increases the risks. A disproportionate number of Christians do believe they are gifted in the poetic line. Faith apparently absolves them from the need for attend to meter.
In this case the only risk is that you will have to spend too many hours reciting those rhymes. I believe we actually wore the cover off from use.
The rhymes are fun and carry the story very well.
In the beginning
God made the light.
The light was for day
and the dark was for night.
There is a newer edition, it seems, with different illustrations. I absolutely love the illustrations in the version I’ve linked to above. They are whimsical and they evoke the emotions of the stories. And that is not always the case in children’s Bibles. Many have pictures as cheesy as — well, as cheesy as Christian art often is.
The book is succinct: 12 Old Testament stories and 14 New Testament. I was amazed how well the key stories and overall narrative were communicated.
Over and over. Night after night after night. All through toddlerhood. Then suddenly, we were done.
No rhymes here, in case that is a relief to you, and a much fuller telling of each story. But the great feature of The Jesus Storybook Bible is explained in the subtitle: Every Story Whispers His Name. This is a children’s Bible with a clear theology of Scripture.
It is not merely that every story matters, or even that the whole story matters — though both statements are true. The Jesus Storybook Bible sees the whole of Scripture through its proclamation of Jesus.
Throughout its 21 Old Testament stories and 23 New Testament stories, Jesus the “rescuer” is always under consideration: he is the one who was hoped for, promised and expected. He is the one who was present and active. He is the one who is remembered and to whom followers bore witness.
In the beginning there was nothing.
Nothing to hear. Nothing to feel. Nothing to see.
Only emptiness. And darkness. And … nothing but nothing.
But God was there. And God had a wonderful Plan.
Because of seeing the whole Bible through the lens of Jesus, the book hangs together as a book better than most children’s Bibles. And more importantly, it helps parents and their kids begin to read the Bible as Christians, since this is the ancient and traditional understanding of how the Bible works.
The pictures are fun. Jago’s illustrations don’t aim for realism but they create a cultural world in which to see the Bible. They partner well with the stories, and can take the reader farther than the words would on their own.
If reading books gave us frequent flyer miles, we would have a great vacation from this one by now. Since they don’t, we’ll just keep reading it. It remains a pleasure for both parents and kids.
This is the most recent addition to our collection. By way of full disclosure, I received a copy in a giveaway on the author’s agent’s blog.
With 26 Old Testament stories and 26 New Testament this book gets into more specific parts of the narrative than the others reviewed here. I’ve not done a word count, but my sense is that it would be high.
There is less of a clear theological center to the telling of the Bible’s story here. The stories are presented chronologically. That is true to the nature of the Bible’s own presentation, so one could argue the approach is especially appropriate.
Make-believe stories often begin “once upon a time…” But God’s true story starts like this: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
There is, then a combination of retelling and paraphrase. There is a bit more here in each story told as compared to children’s Bible reviewed above. A few more questions get answered about each story, even if the book as a whole is not carried forward in plot and character development. I suspect this is why one of my children is currently prodding me to read this book in particular.
The illustrations are attractive more than evocative, some a bit Disneyesque.
Trying to simply tell the story of the Bible at a kid’s level presents some challenges. Some bits that would be hard to explain to children are simply skipped here — scenes in Jacob’s and David’s lives come to mind. This leaves some plot holes which, strangely, are more noticeable here than in the shorter books reviewed above.
I’ve talked only about the stories, not about the book’s other distinctive features. The stories are the best part. Every story is preceded by a Bible verse, but they are rarely from the story being told. Each concludes with a blessing and a prayer, but the blessings are more declarations of truths.
Telling Your Children the Bible’s Story
Each night when we turn the lights out I tell my kids a Bible story — without a book to help. We start with creation, move through the Old Testament night by night, then Jesus arrives and we move through the Gospels all the way through Acts and the Revelation.
I would love to help you get a confident working knowledge of the Bible so you can tell its story to your kids — or to anybody else actually. It is a huge help in being a confident, competent disciple.
I’m dreaming up a class to help you know the Bible like you’ve never known it before. Just click the button and I’ll keep you posted.
Send me info about the Bible class!
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Thanks for your review of these children’s “bible” books. I would go out and buy the 2nd book based on your reviews. 🙂
Thanks Diana! Glad to know you like this kind of post — I’m aiming to do more reviews and interviews as time rolls on.
You can also click through the link in the post if you want to order the book on Amazon.
I love The Jesus Storybook Bible. I’ve gotten lots of miles out of it, preaching on the creation text in The JSB, reading the Christmas story from it in Christmas Eve Family services, reading it weekly to the preschool classes, and reading it to my own kids at home.
We even give it to families of preschoolers on the day when we present second graders with “Adventure Bible’s” and confirmands with study bibles.
So clearly, I approve of it 🙂
We also have the first, which is great for young children. I’ll have to check out the third book!
Thanks for the reviews, Gary!
Thanks Tyler! You know, it was you (or Kip?) who introduced me to th JSB.
Gratefully,
Gary
We read the cover right off the JSB and had to buy a second copy. I also like “The Biggest Story” by Kevin DeYoung. It’s not a Bible story book exactly, it’s more like a narrative overview. My kids find the illustrations captivating as well as the story.